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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Our second son was born on November 8th! Mashallah he weighed in at a healthy 8.5 pounds, and we have named him Saif. I had really been praying that I would have a fairly easy normal delivery as I had with our first son, but right at the last minute I ended up with placental abruption and an emergency C-section. Alhamdulillah we made it through ok, but recovery was much harder this time.

I want to thank everyone who posted congratulations (I have been trying to get online to do that, but as you can all guess we have been rather busy recently!) Thank you all!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

I have been working on some little things for the impending little one, some sewing projects and a little knitted set. The knitting is not quite finished, but I did get these two little shalwar kameez suits done.

First is this little set, remnants from one of Saad's Eid suits 2012, and the check fabric is left over from two pairs of lounge pants made for Saad and Dada. I wanted buttons, but Tariq wants snaps, he suggested that we compromise and I can just move the buttons to the upper side of the placket and sew snaps on the inside. I will end up doing it because he is kind of right, it will probably only be worn once or twice, why go through the bother of buttons?

Next is this suit, remnants from Saad's Eid suit 2013-

Saad loves the idea that his(not mine apparently :-) will have matching clothes. MashAllah he is very excited about all this, and talks to the baby a lot.

I did a bit of hand embroidery so it isn't too plain. Just free handed a little boat and used chain stitch.

Friday, October 25, 2013

So lots of stuff happening, but we are still in Karachi. Since my last post of any substance(a looong time ago) we have had a wedding in the family(SIL#3) MashAllah, Saad took third position in his first year of school(KG 1), Tariq had a visa interview and got put into the Dreaded Administrative Processing(ahhhhh!), and we are currently expecting our second child(due any day now!).

I am trying to get as much as I can done before the little one arrives. Working on getting the WIP pile to a more manageable size, started a couple baby knits and crochet projects(someone else is expecting also, so lots of baby stuff to get working on), rearranging our room, and cleaning like a mad woman(when I have the energy for it).

Some days I get more done, some days it is all I can do to keep us in clean clothes and get something cooked up to eat. Alhamdullilah it is all slowly getting done though. InshAllah two SILs are coming back from UAE soon, so that will be a great help. It is always easier to have people to lean on when you need help, one of the benefits of a joined family, always somebody there :-)

InshAllah I really want to try to get a bit more posts going on the blog, we'll see how that goes! I have been thinking about an update on my original shalwar kameez tutorials, as I have been improving my technique and learning new little tricks. The originals are kind of basic, I suppose I could just post the improved bits as mini tutorials. Might be easier than trying to re-write the whole things!

Monday, September 23, 2013

A while ago(wow back in June 2011), I posted a couple little nursery rhymes that I had learned and was teaching Saad. Recently I got a little book full of them and have been learning some more. So here are a couple I wanted to share-

Chand ki Pariyan

Dadi amma kheti hain,

Chand pey pariyan rheti hain.

Roz utar ker ati hain,

Apne per pelati hain.

Aj mein raat na songa,

Chand ki pariyan dekhonga.

Dadi amma kheti hain,

Chand pey pariyan rheti hain.

Translation-

Moon Fairies

Grandmother says,

There are fairies living on the moon.

Daily they come,

To open their wings.

Tonight I will not sleep,

I will look for moon fairies.

Grandmother says,

There are fairies living on the moon.

The second one is a bit longer and sounds a bit silly in translation.

Neeli Cheriya

Eik thi Murgi, eik thi cheriya.

Lal thi murgi, neeli cheriya.

Cheriya ki awaz sureeli,

Nuna sa moo, gardan peeli.

Murgi din bar gana gati,

Cheriya iss sey tung ajati.

Eik din cheriya boliyu,

Bi murgi sey- chu chu chu.

Ande wande laya ker,

Gana tu mat gaya ker!

Translation-

Blue Sparrow

There was one chicken, there was one sparrow.

The chicken was red, the sparrow blue.

The sparrow's sound was melodious,

The sparrow had a small mouth and yellow neck.

The chicken sang a song all day,

The sparrow was annoyed by it.

One day the sparrow said

to the chicken, chu chu chu!

Eggs shmeggs, bring them,

Just don't sing a song!

InshAllah I am working on some more, and will post them sometime soon!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Adding a contrasting band to the bottom of a shalwar is a simple way to add detail without too much extra work. It can also help if you've made a mistake in the cutting and your shalwar is to short, or if your fabric is just a bit on the short side.

Step 1-Cut your leg as normal(for this tutorial I am using a simple shalwar as the example rather than a belt shalwar), but instead of adding three inches to the length, add only two. Also cut two stripes of fabric, two inches wide, and the same length as the paincha(foot opening) of your shalwar.

Step 2- You will need two pieces of buckram(interfacing), one for
each leg. They should be the same length as your contrast fabric
stripes, and one inch wide. Place the interfacing in the middle of the
fabric strip on the wrong side and fold over a half inch from each side
towards the center.

Step 3- Unfold one of the edges of your
contrast strip and line it up against the bottom of your foot opening,
so that it is centered and the raw edges match. The right side of the
contrast strip should face the wrong side of the shalwar. Sew one line
along the edge of the buckram and the opened fold line.

Step
4- Fold the contrast strip to the right side of the shalwar. You may
want to pin it in place to keep the buckram from shifting around.

Step
5-Sew at least two lines, one at the top of the contrast fabric and one
at the bottom, though I usually make more, at least five or six lines,
around an eighth of an in apart.

About Me

I am an American finally back home after living in Karachi-Pakistan and Abu Dhabi-UAE for seven years. My husband and I have two sons(ages 7 years and almost two). Where will we end up, follow along and find out!